Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson is having a better summer than you. He kicked off the season by starring in Furious 7, which has grossed well over a billion dollars worldwide. He followed that up a month later with his starring vehicle, San Andreas, which opened to over $53 million dollars in its first weekend. His immediate future is looking bright as well. He has already committed to starring in Fast & Furious 8, is currently shooting Central Intelligence with Kevin Hart, a remake of Big Trouble in Little China, playing the villain in Shazam, and Deadline has just reported today that Johnson has agreed to lead a feature film adaptation of the popular 80’s arcade game, Rampage.
The arcade game was first released by Midway in 1986. The game let the players control one of three gigantic mutant monsters, in an homage to disaster movies such as King Kong, Godzilla, and more. In the game, players are rewarded for leveling cities, on a world tour of destruction. This is how Deadline describes the upcoming project.
Dwayne Johnson is re-teaming with New Line and producer Beau Flynn for Rampage, a live action feature that has been set for a 2016 summer production start. The film is based on the classic 80’s Midway Arcade Game that has since had numerous incarnations on different gaming platforms. They are keeping the plot under wraps, but the game involves three giant monsters–a gorilla, a lizard and a wolf–that wreak havoc on major cities and landmarks across North America. The formidable Johnson gets in their way.
If audiences bought Johnson battling an earthquake, it might not be much more of a stretch to imagine him single-handedly battling three enormous monsters. But it is no less ridiculous. Johnson is reteaming with producer Beau Flynn, from San Andreas, along with screenwriter Ryan Engle (Non-Stop) whose script is being closely guarded. With Pixels getting a lot of buzz for its inclusion of classic 80’s video game characters, it makes sense why New Line would kick the development of Rampage into high gear after the project dwelled in developmental hell for years.
Johnson is one of the few movie stars that sells tickets based on reputation alone. It is a smart business move to get him involved in the project and to give him and his producers some latitude to develop the property. Flynn has already proven that he can produce large-scale destruction, while drawing in audiences. It will be interesting to see what they come up with for Rampage. It is also unclear if upcoming movies for the real Godzilla and King Kong, will make Rampage seem derivative. (Because it is…) We will be sure to bring you the latest on the film as it comes together.
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Source: Slashfilm